Biography
Catherine Lara (born Catherine Bodet on 29 May 1945) is a French violinist, composer, singer, and writer. With a career spanning over fifty years, she has become a prominent figure in French pop/rock and neo-classical music. She has released 26 studio albums, composed music for numerous TV and film projects, and participated in producing various theatrical productions. Lara is openly lesbian.
Born in Poissy, near Paris, to a doctor and pianist father and a violinist mother, Catherine began violin lessons at age five. She entered the Conservatoire de Versailles at 11 and won first prize in 1958. She later earned second prize for violin at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1965 and first prize for chamber music in 1966.
After completing her studies, Lara founded her own chamber orchestra, Les Musiciens de Paris, serving as first violinist. She then formed the Lara Quartet, which performed alongside artists such as Claude Nougaro, Nana Mouskouri, Mireille Mathieu, and Jean Ferrat. She contributed to recordings by Françoise Hardy, Maxime Le Forestier, Georgette Lemaire, Jean Sablon, and Juliette Gréco, and penned two songs for Barbara's 1972 album Amours incestueuses. In 1969, Lara opened for Canadian singer Gilles Vigneault at Paris’s Olympia.
Her debut album of original work, Ad libitum, came out in 1972. In 1975, she composed the soundtrack for the French film Docteur Françoise Gailland. William Sheller dedicated a song to her on his 1977 album Symphoman, where she also played violin. In 1979, she contributed to Richard Gotainer’s album Contes de traviole. Her 1974 album, La craie dans l'encrier, featured folk influences and guest vocals by Gilbert Montagné.
From her 1979 album Coup d'feel onward, Lara’s music incorporated stronger rock elements. Recorded in Morin-Heights, Quebec, this album marked the start of her partnership with French-Canadian lyricist Luc Plamondon, with contributions from Jean-Pierre Ferland as well. In the early 1980s, she composed scores for films including The Rebel (1980), Men Prefer Fat Girls (1981), and La Triche (1984), and wrote music for the 1982 musical revue Revue et corrigée, created by friends Bob Decout and Annie Girardot.
Her 1983 album La Rockeuse de diamant was a significant success, featuring the title track and the bold song "Autonome," in which Lara openly declares her sexuality with lyrics expressing freedom to love both women and men. This made her one of the first French celebrities to publicly come out as gay. In a televised interview with Michel Denisot on Mon Zénith à moi, when asked what she looks for first in a man, she humorously replied, "His wife." Although she kept her personal life private at the time, Lara was in a relationship with actress Muriel Robin from 1990 to 1995.
